Collegiate Career

Sarah graduated in 2018 after two years at at the University at Buffalo (BIO) (NCAA Division I) and two years at Hofstra University (BIO) (NCAA Division I).  Sarah started all 53 games of the 2018 season in the 4 spot for Hofstra, the #18 team in the country at the time.  The team earned a CAA Conference Championship and NCAA Regional Tournament appearance where she was a key asset in their success (Article).  She completed her senior season with a .336 batting average and .453 OBP, with 12 doubles, 6 home runs and 32 RBIs.  She finished her college career as an NFCA All-Northeast Region First-Team selection, First-Team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection, CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, two-time CAA All-Tournament Team selection and NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete.

As a hitter, Sarah has great plate awareness and pitch selection, known for working deep into counts and drawing walks.  At Hofstra she holds the 5th-most single-season walks in program history with 31.  She earned the nickname “Clutch,” known to execute high-pressure situations including a game-winning 2-run homer in extra innings against FIU and a game-winning RBI in extra innings against eventual College World Series champions, Florida State.  She ended her 53 game senior season on a 22 game reached-base streak.

On the base paths, Sarah has average speed and good base running skills, known for avoiding tags.  Sarah’s catching abilities were described as having a very strong & accurate arm, good command of the field, and great pitch calling knowledge.  She is known for her good hands and athleticism in the field as well as her willingness to fill any defensive role needed, even as a left-handed thrower.  Sarah also has 10 years of coaching experience and would be open to helping out with the youth program.

Overseas Career

For Sarah’s first season in Europe she was under two contracts for the 2018 summer.  She first played for the Lucerne Eagles in Switzerland for the regular season and 2018 European Winners Cup in the Netherlands.  She was a key asset in helping a 2-10 team win their last 6 out of 8 games to make the playoffs.  She took the league by storm, finishing with a stat line of .680/.758/1.160.

In the 2018 European Winners Cup in Rotterdam while competing against some of the world’s best players, Sarah was at the top of almost every offensive statistic.  She went on to finish with Old Parma Taurus in Italy for the second half of their season.  She helped a 3-17 team win 4 of their last 12 games to get them out of relegation.

Sarah played with the Western Magpies in Auckland, New Zealand for the 2018-2019 winter.  While catching and playing outfield, Sarah maintained a perfect fielding percentage of 1.000 through 20 league games.  She helped her team win the Auckland Softball Championship and the New Zealand Club Nationals Championship.  At the NZ Club Nationals tournament she helped the Magpies advance to the semi-finals with a walk-off RBI sac fly in the 8th inning against Auckland rivals Otahuhu.  She finished the tournament with a stat line of .455/.630/.500 through 8 games.

Sarah returned to Italy in 2019 with the Old Parma Taurus.  She offensively led the team in every category, finishing with the statistics .350/.460/.475.  For the second half of the season she signed with defending Dutch champions Olympia Haarlem to play in the 2019 European Premiere Cup and the Dutch Golden League playoffs.  She helped them win the bronze medal at the Cup and become finalists in the Holland championship series.  In the “Top 4” round of playoffs, while playing against the most competitive teams in the league Sarah earned a stat line of .636/.692/.909 in 5 games and racked up the most RBI’s in the postseason with 9.

In 2020, she played for Inox Team Saronno for her 3rd Italian season.  Her regular season statistics were .485/.697/.647 in 13 games.  She finished the regular season 4th in the league for Batting Average, 6th for Slugging, 2nd for OBP, 2nd for OPS and led the league in walks with 16.  She reached base in 19 out of 20 total games played.  Saronno finished 2nd in the Serie A1 Softball Championship, losing to MFK Bollate in the final game.  It was the club’s first appearance in the Italian championship final.

In 2021, Sarah returned to Old Parma to play her 4th season in the Italian Softball League.  She led the regular season in triples with 5.  In 40 games (2020 & 2021 combined) while playing a mix of catcher, outfield and first base, Sarah committed only two errors.  She also participated in the 2021 European Premier Cup with CBS Rivas Madrid, playing a mix of center field and catcher.  She helped the Spanish team to a 4th place finish, as the team’s leader in runs scored (6).

In February of 2022, Sarah spoke in an interview with Grandeslam.net about her softball career, future goals and mental health.  She had recently signed with Bertazzoni Collecchio for her 5th Italian season.  In the 2022 season she played CF/1B/C and batted primarily in the leadoff spot.  She helped Collecchio to a 4th place finish and she finished the regular season as the team leader in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, total bases and walks.  She finished second on the team in OBP and slugging.  Across 11 teams in the league, she was 10th in runs, 9th in triples, and tied for 2nd in walks. She walked 21 times in 96 plate appearances (22%).

Sarah joined CBS Rivas once more to participate in the 2022 European Premier Cup, helping them to another 4th place finish. In the 8-team tournament among the best club teams in Europe, she finished 7th in runs (7), 9th in hits (8), 8th in OBP (.556), and 2nd in walks (7) in only 27 plate appearances.

Sarah is currently playing her 6th season in the Italian Softball League, as one of the most impactful hitters of the 2024 Italian season for her team, Rheavendors Caronno.  She has spent the majority of her time in the outfield this season but has performed and both first base and catcher as well.  On April 18th, she hit a sacrifice fly in extra innings for a walk-off win against Bertazzoni Collecchio (box score), and on April 27th she hit a grand slam to give the team the runs they needed for a 5-4 win over Italpolsa Forlì (box score).

Italian National Team

In December of 2019 Sarah finished the process of getting her Italian Passport and became a member of the Italian National Team (Article).  She was selected to play on the 20 women roster for the 2020 Australia Pacific Cup.(Article)  She played catcher against Chinese Taipei, globally ranked #6 at the time, which resulted in an Italian victory of 6-3.  She also played right field against the Aussie Spirit.  She was in the Olympic selection pool for Team Italia in their preparation for Tokyo (Article), but was not selected for the 15 player Olympic roster.

Sarah was reselected by the Italian National Team in 2022 for the 15 player roster that participated in the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.  She helped Italy to a victory over Mexico, globally ranked #4, with a sacrifice fly that extended the Azzurre lead to the final score of 4-1.  Sarah played every game of the tournament at first base and kept a perfect fielding percentage.

Shortly after, Sarah wore the Italian jersey again for the 2022 European Championship in Sant Boi, Spain.  In her first at-bat of the tournament Sarah homered to put up three runs in Italy’s 11-0 victory over Poland.  She also played a major part in Italy’s 4-3 win over Germany.  The Azzurre found themselves down 3-0 before Sarah scored two runs and batted in two teammates to give them the 4 runs needed to win.

Italy came in third place in the tournament after winning the bronze medal game against the Czech Republic.  Sarah finished 3rd on the team in runs (9), 3rd in RBIs (8), 2nd in OBP (.519), 3rd in OPS (.990), and 1st in walks (10).  Her 10 walks were the most in the tournament across 21 teams.

Minor League Baseball

Sarah was appointed as the Philadelphia Phillies Hitting Development Coach in January of 2023 for their rookie ball team in the Florida Complex League.  She served as the first female coach in Phillies franchise history, since their origin in 1883.  As she mentioned in an interview with MLB.com, she believed that her experience as an overseas player prepared her to work and bond with the Phillies international athletes.  As she put it, her role is in developing power and contact hitters alike, and “instilling in them that they can be the type of hitter that they want to be, and still make it to ‘The Bigs.'”

Sports Illustrated published an article about Sarah once in February and again in March for Women’s History Month, where they acknowledged that she is “helping pave the way forward for young women in the sport.” (article)

Her new position also caught the attention of some smaller and more local news outlets, including The Brunswick News, That Ball’s Outta Here, Phillies Nation, the Philadelphia Inquirer, BVM Sports, and NBC10 Philadelphia. She made international news, being featured on the Italian blog, Che Palle.

Baseball Jobs Overseas has also released our own article about Sarah’s historic accomplishment.

USA Baseball Women’s National Team

Sarah joined Team USA Women’s Baseball for the 2023 World Cup Group Stage in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Sarah was among over 100 women who attended try outs for Team USA in Mesa, Arizona, and first made the Top 40 Camp roster before being selected for the 20-player roster to represent USA in the World Cup.  Sarah was the team’s only newcomer to have never played baseball before — all of her teammates had already put in time on the national team or had been in the player development pipeline.  She served as back-up 1B/RF in the Cup, hitting an RBI double in her first-ever baseball at-bat to extend USA’s lead over Korea. (Article) (Video)  Sarah took the time to chat with Michael Clair from MLB.com about the team, the baseball industry and her lifelong journey as an athlete.

The dominant Team USA went undefeated in the group stage with a staggering cumulative runs score of 71-2 through 5 games. (Schedule & Results) Sarah was in the trials to be selected for the 2024 World Cup, but was not chosen on the 20-player roster. Team USA lost in the finals against Japan, 11-6.